Welcome to Lower Mill Estate in the Cotswolds, one of those rare islands of tranquility where time seems to stand still and families come together.

I visited the site near Cirencester with one eye on the future as the company behind the scheme, Habitat Escapes, are currently working on a new site at Crossways just down the road from me in Dorset and I left feeling that my home county probably does not realise just how lucky it is.

The holiday development at Lower Mills was, like the Dorset site is going to be, built on an old quarry, with work starting in 1999.

It must have taken a man of rare vision to foresee how the mounds of silt and mud could be transformed into a stunning lakeside community with beautifully designed homes.

That man was the late Jeremy Paxton and his work is being not just continued but built on by his three children, Red, Ruby and Rory.

All the homes here are looking out over a network of man-made lakes fed from the River Thames that look so natural and sit so perfectly in the stunning Cotswolds landscape it is hard to imagine they were actually designed and planned by a human.

The houses all range in size and design but come together beautifully to create that sense of a community and home from home.

With huge glass windows looking out over the water, the buildings seem to have been planned not to make a statement but simply out of a passion for design and appreciation of the landscape.

But this site is about so much more than just the buildings, with just one third of the Lower Mill Estate built on.

The rest of the 550-acre site is a nature reserve that is just perfect for getting out as a family and enjoying the great outdoors.

With trails to walk, run or cycle around, it is the perfect place to get out and enjoy the local nature and wildlife that the site’s developers have done so much to conserve and even enhance with the reintroduction of former native species such as beavers.

It is such a family-friendly environment that children are not just safe but set free and there is a real sense of families coming together to enjoy each others company and do activities together – let’s be honest how often do we really get to do that in our day to day lives?

My wife and I were enjoying one of our first proper family holidays with our 18-month-old daughter Lydia and we could not have picked a more ideal place to come.

Being a water baby (or water toddler I guess now!) she loved the pool at the on-site spa and she also enjoyed her trip out in a buggy attached to the back of my bike.

For older kids there are a range of sporting facilities and with so much water around there is the opportunity to have a go at sailing, canoeing and fishing.

Our apartment we stayed in was a stunning, modern penthouse with a huge balcony offering incredible views out over one of the site’s many lakes.

The development also boasts an on-site restaurant, Ballihoo, which has a kind of laid back, beach-hut type feel and serves delicious food including one of the nicest steaks I have tasted in a long time.

The fact that many of the houses are occupied not just by holiday makers but people who own them and have a real passion for the place adds to that sense of a community and you feel everyone at Lower Mill really cares about the place.

Everyone there is so friendly but it is the scenery that is the real star of the show, every corner you turn seems to give you a new angle from which to appreciate the landscape in a different way.

To live in such luxurious accommodation and yet feel so close to nature is a rare treat.

It may not be the most practical solution to global problems but if everyone could wake up to the sight of a swan paddling effortlessly across the still, mirror-like surface of a lake I think the world would be a much happier place.

Fact box

Harry and his family were stating at the Willow Warbler at Lower Mill Estate, which costs from £630 per week accommodating up to four people.

For more information visit habitatescapes.com or call 01285 869 489.

Properties at Lower Mill Estate (lowermillestate.com) start from £495,000 and properties at Silverlake (silverlakedorset.com) start from £350,000.